Credit card 'swipe fees' could decrease under new Pa. bill, but banks hate the idea

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7. yeah, and some merchants (usually smaller businesses and certainly not all) offer a discount for cash because of this

and quite possibly because they're evading income taxes on cash transactions as well, but that's another topic entirely....

the problem i have with this is that the government is trying to regulate the formula the credit card market uses to charge for their services. but in the end, the market only cares about how much you pay and how much you earn.

so to keep the cost and fees approximately the same, if they have to charge on $100 instead of on $106, they're just increase their fee rate by 6% to keep the revenue unchanged. So in end it doesn't accomplish anything. consumers still pay the same amount, merchants still pay the same amount, card companies still get the same amount.

maybe merchants get a temporary break as contracts roll off before the credit card processors renew with a 6% higher rate. and as noted before, people in lower tax areas and buying items free from sales tax would end up slightly subsidizing the rest.

consumers will not see any break on a car purchase.